Materials?

So far, in my travels with Carrara, materials importing in from both Poser-friendly and Daz Studio-friendly products come into Carrara look like garbage when rendered. Is there a script, or other tool, that anyone has come up with for quick fixes?

In fact, so far, I've found that most "material poses" (in the pose folders) I've tried apply at all from eithe Poser or Daz Studio format. In the case of a Daz Studio friendly character I have, the skin textures doesn't even appeared to have applied to the right material zones, when it did work...

I know there are rarely "quick" fixes for things in life, but really... I have better things to do than apply materials to each and every material zone for every single thing I bring into Carrara... I picked this program up because I thought it could use Poser content fairly well. Luckily, I didn't pay much for it between the big discount gimmick Daz recently had going and my PC coupon... :roll: And even if I never work with this app again, I did get a couple of Poser-friendly hair products with the bundle, but... *sigh* :roll:

Post edited by tiggersprings on August 2014

Comments

I don't have the version you have, but I have tried to keep up with the posts regarding Genesis and such. I do believe the C8.5 native content included Genesis related stuff, including some skin shader presets. I may be wrong on that, but if I'm not, and they were installed correctly, you should find them in the Shader Browser probably under skin. These will be optimized for Carrara so there shouldn't be any tweaking needed. To use them, select the model or actor under the figure's group in the instances palette and look for a shading tab at the top of the screen. Select it and you should see a large multi-colored ball above a list of the shading domains. Drag and drop the icon from the shader browser onto the big ball and it will automatically apply the proper shaders to the shading domains. Note that Genesis is supposed to support different UV mapping and such, so I have no idea how to make sure a Victoria 6 shader fits a Aiko 6 or whatever body.

I know you're getting frustrated, but the thing about Carrara, D|S, Poser, C4D, Maya, Blender, etc. etc. etc. is that they all have their own shader system and light system. Carrara is translating Poser and D|S shaders to work with Carrara's shader system. Image maps are pretty basic for color and bump channels, but when you start getting into Poser or DAZ specific optimizations, Carrara has to try and find the best way to do it. Sometimes it does alright, sometimes not so much, and sometimes it doesn't even load the maps. You won't want to hear it, but most people tweak their shaders to their liking in Carrara. It may be a PITA at first, but once it clicks with you, you'll be amazed what you can do to a simple texture map. If you don't wish to get into that, people like RingoMontfort and PhilW have skin sets and dynamic hair products for sale that are outstanding and made for Carrara. The shaders apply just as I described above.

The screen shot is applying shaders to an A4 in C7.2, but it should look very similar to what you do in C8.5.

So far, in my travels with Carrara, materials importing in from both Poser-friendly and Daz Studio-friendly products come into Carrara look like garbage when rendered. Is there a script, or other tool, that anyone has come up with for quick fixes?

Could you elaborate a bit more, maybe with a couple of example renders and the products used. Some stuff, especially the complex shaders from DS and Poser, can come in a bit off (or really off), but usually it isn't as big of a problem as you seem to be having. One general rule of thumb is to use the "simplest" version of the materials available. If there is a P4 version or a version that states something to the effect of "no shaders", use that/those. If given some pictures to work from, most people here will be able to send you in the right direction.

In fact, so far, I've found that most "material poses" (in the pose folders) I've tried apply at all from eithe Poser or Daz Studio format. In the case of a Daz Studio friendly character I have, the skin textures doesn't even appeared to have applied to the right material zones, when it did work.

This sounds like your using a texture set with one UV mapping, and a character with a different one. This is one of the new features that comes with Genesis, but also one of the new frustrations for new users, especially those who don't us DS. With DS you can change the UV maps "on the fly", but with Carrara you can't. Here is a link to a thread where Tim_A was having a similar issue with Stephanie 6. http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/44586/ My response there may help, if not let me know and I'll try to make things a bit clearer.

Basically, you will need to use DS to create a character preset with the proper uv mapping in DS, then you will be able to use the texture set with the alternate UV's. Here is another thread addressing the same issue that may be more useful: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/28023/

I know there are rarely "quick" fixes for things in life, but really... I have better things to do than apply materials to each and every material zone for every single thing I bring into Carrara... I picked this program up because I thought it could use Poser content fairly well. Luckily, I didn't pay much for it between the big discount gimmick Daz recently had going and my PC coupon... :roll: And even if I never work with this app again, I did get a couple of Poser-friendly hair products with the bundle, but... *sigh* :roll:

As mentioned above, Fenric does have a plugin that will help a lot!! Shader Doctor will fix a lot of the common materials/shader import issues with one simple click. Since he has a free, fully functional trial, this should give you a chance to see if it will fix some of your problems. I just recently got it, because editing the shaders wasn't a real big deal for me, until I tried using one of StoneMasons big scenes, with over 100 shaders that needed to be fixed. His plugin took all the grief out of that process for me!

I feel your frustration, and actually as much as I hate to say this, it will probably continue for a while. Your actually being hit with learning three rather confusing things for new users - all at once. After you get past the learning curve, if you can last that long, it should get much easier and less frustrating.

First, your learning Carrara, which is designed more as a 3D swiss army knife, and is not designed to make using content as simple as DS or Poser (an unfortunate reality - it should do a bit better, but once you learn the in's and out's, it really does get much easier).

Second, Your learning to use Genesis at the same time. While this isn't as big of a deal as learning Carrara, it can still be rather frustrating in the begining, because it is a fair bit different in many ways than V4, M4, etc.

Third, your leaning to use Genesis in Carrara, so this is adding significantly to your levels of frustration. It makes if extremely difficult for new users to know exactly what might be going on when something goes wrong. No doubt you have no idea what to do, or what might be causing the problem, which is never a good experience.

You also have another little issue that makes life even more unpleasant at the moment. As a Poser user, your getting hit with trying to learn terms/concepts that are a part of the DS/Genesis user experience/vocabulary (as well as Carrara). So you have every right t feel frustrated, and a bit at your wits end!!

I wish I could be "here" more to help walk you through some of these issues, but my schedule has gotten a bit more crowded. But, if you hang in there, I'll try to help you through the learning curve as best I can.

Oh, I'm still working on an easier fix for the poke through issues, there has to be one, it's just stumbling onto the magic key can sometimes take a while.

Well, "Shader Power Tools for Carrara" looks interesting. If I decide to use Carrara pemanently, I may eventually get it. Right now, $40 is too much of an investment to take a big chance on. Thank you, though. :)

Ack... Great... I didn't realize that about the Gensis 1 UVs in Carrara. I hate Daz Studio and really have no intention of learning to use it, too. Carrara might be an all-together loss, I guess... Oh, well. Maybe I'll try some more simple content. I'm not going to buy anything as scenes and stuff specifically for Carrara until I make up my mind on whether I'm going to stick with it. Not that there's a lot of content ready-made for it (not even here at Daz). And as a general rule, I shop here as little as possible any way.

100% agree with Head wax and Ringo, Fenric's Poser Shader Doctor (which includes Skin Doctor free) is the one click solution you are looking for that will retexture your poser stuff to be friendly with Carrara. It's very inexpensive too.

Oh, I'm still working on an easier fix for the poke through issues, there has to be one, it's just stumbling onto the magic key can sometimes take a while.

There are number of ways to address poke through, but I understand that at this point you just want something simple.

You can mimic the "displacement shader" method that Dustrider had originally proposed but had some issues with, Carrara lets you edit the whole mesh (which is different from creating a morph in a selected body part). Choose the actor level of the clothing article that is causing the poke through. Instead of changing the shader to add displacement, enter the modeling room (the wrench). Use edit / select all. Under motion, change the overall scale to 101 or something similarly close to 100. The article will get a little bigger as if the entire thing had a displacement applied to it.

I don't actually recommend that method. It might create poke through in another part of the clothing. For the kind of simple poke through that has been depicted so far, I think you could fit the clothing to the genesis figure in the t-pose then enter the modeler in the assembly room (wrench in the upper left rather than the upper right). Choose a polygon near the affected area and check the "soft select" box. You might want to select multiple polygons or increase the adjust the softness number to change the region of polygons affected. Make a small adjustment to fix the poke through. Exit the modeler and return to the assembly room.

You may get a warning message about protected topology. Most of the time, for this kind of small change, you can ignore it.

Dartanbeck's information manual that is stickied at the top of the carrara forum has a section devoted to poke through with several more options.

My computer with C8.5 and genesis died so i can't show any screen shots.